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Volume 19, Issue 2 - March 2015FREE PDF download for members

Volume 19,
Issue 2 -
March 2015

Introduction

Dr. Peter Shea

On behalf of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and our Editorial Board, I am once again pleased to invite you to enjoy a new issue of Online Learning, the official journal of OLC. In this edition readers will find original research from across the US and around the world. Issue 19-2 provides insights into Massive Open Online Courses in hybrid setting, large scale research investigating online learner outcomes, smaller scale case studies, and conceptual advances of some familiar constructs. Consistent with our mission, these investigations inquire into learning processes, pedagogical practice, and technology supports to better understand and promote quality in online environments.

Adopting MOOCs on Campus: A Collaborative Effort to Test MOOCs on Campuses of the University System of Maryland

Rebecca Griffiths, Christine Mulhern and Richard SpieIthaka S+R

Matthew ChingosBrookings Institution

To address the paucity of data on the use of MOOCs in “traditional” postsecondary institutions, Ithaka S+R and the University System of Maryland studied the feasibility of repurposing MOOCs for use in hybrid, credit-bearing courses. In this paper we will describe the design of a large-scale study undertaken to examine...

A Large Sample Comparison of Grade Based Student Learning Outcomes in Online vs. Face-to-Face Courses

Comparisons of grade based learning outcomes between online and face-to-face course formats have become essential because the number of online courses, online programs, and institutional student enrollments have seen rapid growth in recent years. Overall, online education is largely viewed by education professionals as being equivalent to instruction conducted face-to-face....

Comparing Student Assessments and Perceptions of Online and Face-to-Face Versions of an Introductory Linguistics Course

David Johnson, Chris C. Palmer Kennesaw State University

This article examines the issue of whether linguistics is better suited for a face-to-face (F2F) environment than an online teaching environment. Specifically, it examines assessment scores and student perceptions of the effectiveness of an introductory linguistics course at an undergraduate state university that has been taught multiple times in both...

Introducing the Social Presence Model to Explore Online and Blended Learning Experiences

Aimee L. WhitesideUniversity of Tampa

This study explores the extent to which learners feel connected through a concept called social presence. This study explored social presence the first two years of a graduate-level certificate program, specifically the first two cohorts of a 13-month program designed to help educational administrators integrate technology into their schools. Vygotsky’s...

Is It Worth the Effort? The Impact of Incorporating Synchronous Lectures into an Online Course

Joann S. Olson University of Houston- Victoria

Fawn E. McCracken Crown College

This study explores student achievement, sense of social community, and sense of learning community (Rovai, 2002) in two sections of an online course taught concurrently by the same instructor. One section was delivered in a fully asynchronous format; the other incorporated weekly synchronous lectures using an Adobe Connect environment. Students...

The purpose of this action research was to explore students’ perspectives regarding using Web 2.0 technologies to develop a community of learners. The course described in this study was a fully online course in an Educational Learning Technologies master’s program at a medium-sized university in the U.S. Southwest. A variety...

The purpose of this study was to explore how post-graduate students in a fully online business course used information communication technology during a virtual peer coaching experience. In this exploration of technology use it was found students required additional guidance in the use of technologies such as email, telephone calling,...

Student Satisfaction with Online Learning: Is it a Psychological Contract?

The authors explore the possible relationship between student satisfaction with online learning and the theory of psychological contracts. The study incorporates latent trait models using the image analysis procedure and computation of Anderson and Rubin factors scores with contrasts for students who are satisfied, ambivalent, or dissatisfied with their online...